How do you delegate when you are new to a senior role?

The short answer

Delegate the next move, not just the task: say what a good result looks like, agree when you will check in, and then let the person get on with it. New senior leaders often hold on to work because it is familiar, quick to do themselves or a source of confidence.

Delegation moves decisions and effort to where they are best made, so you can do the parts of the role that only you can do.

Why it gets harder at a senior level

Your old job is the one you know you can do well. Handing it over feels risky, and doing it yourself feels like the safest use of your time. Meanwhile the new job, which is mostly about priorities, people and decisions, produces less visible output.

The result is a familiar pattern: you are busy with the old job, the new one is neglected, and the team waits for you.

The monkey on your back

In a classic Harvard Business Review article, William Oncken and Donald Wass use the image of a “monkey” for the next move on a task or problem. When a team member says, “I’ve hit a snag, what should I do?” and you answer, “Leave it with me,” the monkey has jumped from their back to yours. Do this often enough and you end up with a back full of monkeys, while the team has nothing to do but wait.

The practical rule is simple. When someone brings you a problem, leave the next move with them wherever you can. Ask, “What do you think we should do, and when will you tell me how it went?” If you do need to take something on, agree the date by which you will report back.

A simple way to delegate

1. Pick the right task. Good candidates are work someone else can do 80% as well as you, tasks that recur, and work that would develop someone. Poor candidates are decisions only you can make, sensitive conversations that need your authority and matters involving confidential information you cannot share.
2. Choose the right person. Consider skills, interest and capacity, not just who is quickest. If you are managing former peers, do not hand all the interesting work to your closest friends.
3. Say what good looks like. Describe the outcome, the deadline, the limits (budget, risk, who to involve) and how much freedom they have. “Draft the proposal and send it to me by Thursday, and I’ll send it on” is clearer than “Could you look at the proposal?”
4. Agree how you will check in. Fix a date and a format. A short check-in at an agreed point is better than hovering or finding out at the deadline.
5. Let go. If the result is different from how you would have done it but meets the standard, say so. If it falls short, give specific feedback and try again.

Decision rules

Some of the most useful delegation is about decisions, not tasks. If your team keeps escalating the same kind of decision, write down a rule: “You can approve anything under £2,000 without asking me. Tell me afterwards.” A rule like this takes ten minutes to agree and saves hours across a year. Review it after a month and change it if needed.

Three things to watch

• Delegating the work but not the authority. If you ask someone to run a project and then re-do their decisions, you have taught them to wait for you.
• Praise and blame. Credit the person publicly. Take responsibility for the outcome privately; as the leader, it is still yours.
• Delegating only up to the point where it feels uncomfortable. The discomfort is usually a sign that you are doing something useful, not that you should stop.

Why it matters for you

A leader who cannot delegate becomes the team’s bottleneck, and often works long hours doing it. If you notice your workload creeping up and your thinking time disappearing, delegation is usually part of the answer. If you are working so hard that your sleep, mood or health is suffering, speak to your GP; NHS Talking Therapies in England takes self-referrals. Coaching can help you with how you lead, but it is not a treatment.

Try this week

List three tasks you could hand off this month, and name who takes each. Then book the check-in for each, before you hand it over.

This article is general information, not professional, legal or medical advice.

Sources

• William Oncken Jr. and Donald L. Wass, Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey? (Harvard Business Review, 1974; republished November-December 1999). Accessed 2026-10-02.

Read next

• What should a new director focus on in the first 90 days?First months · 4 min read
• How do you manage people who used to be your peers?Relationships · 4 min read